Shelley McKellar

- The Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine
- Research Chair, Department of History
- Professor (Joint Appointment with the Department of Surgery)

image of Shelley McKellarPhD, University of Toronto, 1999
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext. 84990
Email: smckell@uwo.ca
Office: Lawson Hall 2227
Office hours:  Fall Term 2024 - Wednesdays 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
                       Winter Term 2025 - Wednesdays 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm 
History of Medicine at Western                                                                                                                                                                                               

Research Interests

Professor McKellar studies the history of medicine and health care, with a special interest in the history of medical technology, instruments and devices, the history of surgery, and medical biography.

Teaching Experience

Professor McKellar teaches the history of medicine, the medical profession, and related historical aspects of 'doctoring' (highlighting the dynamic interrelationship between medicine and society through history) to medical students in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.  In the Faculty of Social Science, she teaches the history of medicine, medical technology, and related health care aspects of class, race, gender, sexuality, and disability to undergraduate and graduate history students. She advises graduate and medical students on a variety of medical history projects.

Major Research Projects 

Professor McKellar is busy on a new book project, entitled “Cutting for Purpose: Instruments and Intentions in the History of Surgery,” which is an object-centred study exploring how surgical instruments and the act of cutting shaped 19th century medical practice. Using a material culture framework and case-based approach, this project traces the introduction and adoption (or rejection) of various “new” surgical instruments, related implications for patients and clinical management of select medical cases, the dynamic nature of medical ideas and practices, the role of tacit knowledge, and the nature of professional expertise during the 19th century.

Professor McKellar also curates the Medical Artifact Collection, which is a university study collection, representative of late 19th- and early to mid-20th century practice and teaching of health and medicine in southwestern Ontario. It can be viewed online at www.medicalhistory.uwo.ca. 

Select Publications

Books Authored

book cover - Transforming Dentistry

Transforming Dentistry: The Rise and Near Demise of Dentistry at Western University  with David J. Kenny (University of Toronto Press, 2022).  392 pp.

  •  This book reveals the history of Western's dental program as a spirited and gritty story of grand visions, strong personalities and contentious leadership. Focusing on the years from 1965 to 2015, Transforming Dentistry highlights Western University's ambitious plans to create and situate a dental program within a health sciences complex; the practical challenges involved in implementing a curriculum and populating a new school; the influence of key dental faculty, community dentists, and students in shaping the program; and the school's near closure during the 1990s.
Book Cover

Artificial Hearts:  The Allure and Ambivalence of a Controversial Medical Technology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018).  384 pp.
Book Cover

Medicine and Technology in Canada, 1900-1950 . with Allison Kirk-Montgomery. Transformation Series #16 (Ottawa: Canada Science and Technology Museum, 2008). 171 pp.

  • This volume examines the various technological developments in Canadian medicine from 1900 to 1950, highlighting larger patterns in medicine, identifying Canadian contributions, and considering the impact of these innovations on Canadian society.
Book Cover

Surgical Limits: The Life of Gordon Murray (University of Toronto Press, 2003). 270 pp.

  • This biography chronicles the life of one of Canada's most prominent and controversial surgeons, Gordon Murray (1894-1976), discussing Murray’s surgical ingenuity and skill, and how he saved numerous lives through his advances in heart and vascular surgery, his experimental cancer treatment, and his development of a kidney dialysis machine while also engaging in larger issues relating to the limits of surgery, the modern medical research endeavour, and the rising power and authority of the surgeon.

Books Edited

Book Cover

Essays in Honour of Michael Bliss: Figuring the Social. Co-edited with Alison Li, Elsbeth Heaman. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). 491 pp.

  • A collection of essays, predominantly written by former doctoral students of Canadian historian Michael Bliss, discuss his career, his impact on the study of history, and the writing of social and medical history in Canada in the late twentieth century.

Chapters in Books

Journal Articles

Research Presentations

  • “Cutting Decisions, Surgical Outcomes: Tonsil Removal and the Case of Martha Jefferson Trist in 1830,” History of Medicine Seminar Series, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN (October 2025)
  • “Physick’s Tonsil Guillotine as an Evocative Surgical Instrument: Exploring the Problematic Aspects of ‘Cutting’ through a Single Object,” Material Matters: Powerful Objects in Medical Museums and Collections Conference (IAMMC meeting), Deutsches Medizinhistorisches Museum, Ingolstadt, Germany (September 2025)
  • “Making Room for Collections Work by Championing Value & Sustainability of the Medical Artifact Collection at Western University,” LAMPHHS Annual Meeting in conjunction with AAHM 2025 conference meeting, Harvard University, Boston, MA (May 2025)
  • “At the ‘Cutting’ Edge: Speed, Pain and Outcomes in the History of Surgery,” Surgery Interest Group, Medical History Collection, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa (Feb 2025)
  • “‘To cut or not to cut?’: The sentiments and implications rooted in the materialities of surgery,” 2024 Canadian Society for the History of Medicine conference, Congress 2024, McGill University (2024)
  • "Artificial Hearts-could we; should we? A controversial Medical Technology and its Sensational Patient Cases,” Surgical History Section, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Christchurch, New Zealand (2024)
  • "Blades, Speed or precision in Surgery-what matters most? The Changing Characteristic of the Surgical Cut since the 19th Century,” Surgical History Section, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Christchurch, New Zealand (2024)
  •  “‘The greatest obstacle to becoming a surgeon was being a woman:’ Canadian surgeon Jessie Gray (1910-78) and gender disparities in surgical training,” Surgical Education Section, Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), Christchurch, New Zealand (2024)
  •  “Complementary or Competitive Lines of Investigation? The 1960s ‘Dispute’ of Cardiac Transplantation versus Mechanical Implantation to Replace the Damaged Heart,” Invitation Workshop on the History of Cardiac Transplantation, Singapore Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2024)
  • “Decontextualizing and Recontextualizing Medical Objects: The Role of Imagination, Connections, and Relevancy in Teaching with Medical Collections,” New Horizons for Medical Museums and Collections Conference, Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden, The Netherlands (2023)
  •  “Creative Spaces: Evoking Collection Curiosity through Artifact Photography,” LAMPHHS Annual Meeting in conjunction with AAHM 2023 conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (2023)

Displays & Workshops

  • Artifact Collection at Doors Open London Skulls: Pseudoscience and Surgery of the Head”, Case display, LwH (2023)
  •  “Teaching Anatomy and Microscopy at Western,” Case display, LwH (2019)
  •  “Alpha Kappa Kappa (AKK): Beta Kappa Chapter [Medicine] of London, Ontario,” Case display, MSB (2018)
  • "Phrenology"; "Nurse's Uniform"; "Quack Medicine Treatments"; multiple Object Profile cases, LwH (2015)
  •  "Wounded! Front-line Medical Care in the First World War", Case display, LwH and MSB (2014)
  •  "Childbirth: Tools of the Physician", Case display, LwH (2013)
  • "Behind the Display", Doors Open London (2012)
  •  "Instruments and Devices: The Material Culture of Medicine", Case display, D.B. Weldon Library (2011)
  •  “Toothkeys and Forceps: Tools of the Dentist”, “Teaching Anatomy and Microscopy at Western”, “Scalpels and Stethoscopes: The Doctor’s Instruments”, multiple Case displays celebrating the 130th anniversary of Western's Medical School, MSB (2011)

In The News

Awards & Distinctions

  • 2019-2021 - Western Faculty Scholar
    Award recognizes significant recent scholarly achievements in teaching or research, Office of the President, Western University
  • 2010-11, 2012-13 - USC Teaching Honour Roll
    Award of Excellence in Teaching, Western University